On Nov. 24, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office made its way to the driveway of Debra Leigh Newton to make a long-overdue arrest. Debra had been missing in some capacity since April 2, 1983, when she falsely told her husband, Joseph Newton, that she was moving with their child, Michelle Newton, from Louisville, Kentucky, to Georgia for a new job opportunity — only for the two to never be seen again.
At the time, Michelle was just 3 years old. Instead, Debra relocated to The Villages in Florida, where they settled into a new life under new names. The decades-long search for them yielded nothing. Not a trace, not a clue. Eventually, Michelle and Debra were officially removed from the missing persons database in 2005. In recent years, anxiety surrounding kidnapping cases has grown, particularly parental abductions such as the one alleged here.
For a time, the main point of contact in the case was Joseph. But in 2000, he also became sporadic in his communication and eventually fell off the grid, making it impossible for prosecutors to reach him. Joseph has not explained why he did this. In the context of recent revelations involving Jeffrey Epstein and broader concerns about missing children being recruited into activities that defy basic human conscience, the case took on renewed unease. Still, after Michelle was finally found, Joseph was ready to speak…